Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Using the Irish Family History Foundation Site

This
is the site that enabled me to remove the footing that sent my McGarr, “brick
wall” tumbling, (like that metaphor?) http://www.rootsireland.ie/

The first page is where you log in or
register, which is free. You can then
perform a search for baptisms, marriages and a limited number of deaths. There is also Griffiths Valuation, though
given a choice I would use the following site for Griffiths-- http://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/

The Foundation's site allows a
search of a specific county, or you can opt for an all Ireland search. To search
all Ireland simply fill in a name. The
results, sorted by event will appear below the search box. By clicking on one of the “view” tabs an
advanced search box will open allowing you to narrow the search. To perform a specific county search, instead
of filling in a name, go to the sidebar which contains a link to the genealogy
centers available. Before you fill in
the search box that appears after you choose a center, click on the view button
next to the event you’re searching for and the advanced search box will open up. You can then enter more specific terms such
as parent’s names or a parish if you know them.
Both options allow you to limit the years searched.

The rules have
changed since I first started using the site, it now costs 1 credit to see the
hits your search produces, but you are given 10 free page views when you
register and more every time you purchase a record. The search results page will give you only a
first and last name as spelled in the record and the year and county of the
event, it will not give you a parish, so if you already know those
details, don’t bother using your free credits to view it. You will have to view it however if you wish
to purchase the actual register transcription which will give a year, parish, parents
and sponsors or witnesses and will cost you 25 credits, or 5 Euros.

You can, through a process of elimination, find
the year at no charge. It’s also
possible to find the parish by a trial and error search of each parish in the
county, though that option requires a first name so you must either know the
name or get some possibilities by viewing the results page. It doesn’t take long to search the various
parishes, especially if you know whether the family was Catholic or Church of
Ireland which are clearly labeled, (I hate when sites don’t tell you which
denomination you’re looking at).

If for example you are searching for all the
children of one couple, you would fill in the parent’s names and only the last
name for the child. Looking at the search results page will then give you the
first names of children with those parents.
Now you have first names you can begin searching by parish which may help you decide if this is indeed your family. That 5 Euros a crack can add up, you don't want to purchase the wrong family records!

If you know the child’s name but not the
parents or only one parent, I’ve found you can often guess the names of parents
in the baptismal records without going to the expense of buying the
record. After all, the given names in
use at the time were quite few; most of my male ancestors were James, John, Edward,
Michael, Patrick or Daniel, the females all seem to be Mary, Anne, Ellen or
Catherine. Unfortunately this won’t get
you the maiden name of the mother, or the names of sponsors which can be handy
to have. I wound up buying all the McGarr records I could find because I was desperate after years of being unable to find even a mention of them.

While searching, remember, not
all early marriage records gave the parent’s names, or sometimes only the
father’s, so if you include parents names the search engine goes out looking
for them and comes up empty even though the record is there. Try searching with and without them. Ditto baptisms, sometimes only the father was
named.

Another tip, the site is very picky about
spelling. For instance, in one search when
I typed Honora for a first name I got zero hits, but typing Honor produced the
one I needed, same with Anne and Ann, and Mary and Maria. Spelling was not as precise back then either,
surnames got spelled in myriad ways, and the search engine will catch some
variations but not all, so try different spellings for first and last names.

To sum it up use some caution, don’t whip
out that credit card too soon. Use the free
searches and play with it ‘til you get the feel of how it works. Happy Hunting.

2 comments:

I'm glad you posted this. I've been to the site but haven't tried to utilize it fully due to the credits thing. The records seem reasonably priced, so I will have to try again and aim to do the free search as best I can first, following what you've outlined here. I will try it this weekend! Thanks for the tips. :)

About Me

I am married and live here in the 'burbs outside Rochester with my husband and two Yorkshire Terriers. While I work part time at a "day job" genealogy is my true pursuit. I started a local look-up service and have had my first client, yahoo! I can get lost in researching my ancestors for hours at a time, they and the times they lived in are an endless fascination.